Parrot Sound Add-on

Discussions about Sinclair ZX80 and ZX81 Hardware
juancast
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Parrot Sound Add-on

Post by juancast »

Even if you don't have the manual but had it and used it, some instructions as to the program and how to run it in order to make sounds that can be later combined into words, would be much appreciated.
stroebeljc
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Re: Parrot Sound Add-on

Post by stroebeljc »

If you are still interested, I have a bunch of information on this topic and a working program that generates speech. However, I don't have the manual.
John
mcarlson_sb
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Re: Parrot Sound Add-on

Post by mcarlson_sb »

stroebeljc wrote: Fri Apr 24, 2020 11:51 pm If you are still interested, I have a bunch of information on this topic and a working program that generates speech. However, I don't have the manual.
I'd be very interested. I found a book called "How To Make Your Computer Talk" based on the same chip in the parot (Sp0256-al2)

I've ordered a few to try to build my own voice board.
Last edited by mcarlson_sb on Mon Apr 27, 2020 2:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
jdfan1000
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Re: Parrot Sound Add-on

Post by jdfan1000 »

That book was written by someone at RIST (who
made The Parrot):
https://www.timexsinclair.com/book/how- ... uter-talk/

The book is now available on archive.org.

The examples and programs in the book should work with the Parrot.
My archive.org collection, containing many Timex/Sinclair related publications.

TimexSinclair.com, my website about Sinclair computers in the US.
stroebeljc
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Re: Parrot Sound Add-on

Post by stroebeljc »

jdfan1000 wrote: Mon Apr 27, 2020 1:03 am That book was written by someone at RIST (who
made The Parrot):
https://www.timexsinclair.com/book/how- ... uter-talk/

The book is now available on archive.org.

The examples and programs in the book should work with the Parrot.
Excellent resource!
John
stroebeljc
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Re: Parrot Sound Add-on

Post by stroebeljc »

I find it interesting that the book specifies port 3 as the one to use for interacting with the Parrot. This interferes with the ZX Printer (and probably a bunch of other peripherals). I wish I would have known this (or at least figured it out) back when I was trying use this device for the first time. I would have chosen a port that is much less problematic, like 79.
John
stroebeljc
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Re: Parrot Sound Add-on

Post by stroebeljc »

For those interested, here is a ZX81 program I wrote 35+ years ago which has support for the Parrot speech synthesizer.
(It has 400 words in single player mode.)
Attachments
Hangman.p
Hangman game with support for Parrot
(11.07 KiB) Downloaded 139 times
John
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XavSnap
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Re: Parrot Sound Add-on

Post by XavSnap »

Cool stroebeljc !
Thanks for this code.

It able to update the Parrot SPO sound card on the VB81 emulator.
I had to add the &4F IORQ to the VTR/Mageco (@&3F) sound card, enclosed in the emulator.
:ugeek:

Vb81 is now update for the Parrot SPO256...(r. 08/05/2020)

SPO on the &4F IOrq (IN & OUT) port.
Select the sound card, and reinit the computer.

If something's wrong let me know...
Have Fun.
Xavier ...on the Facebook groupe : "Zx81 France"(fr)
stroebeljc
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Re: Parrot Sound Add-on

Post by stroebeljc »

XavSnap wrote: Fri May 08, 2020 7:19 am It able to update the Parrot SPO sound card on the VB81 emulator.
I had to add the &4F IORQ to the VTR/Mageco (@&3F) sound card, enclosed in the emulator.
:ugeek:

SPO on the &4F IOrq (IN & OUT) port.
Select the sound card, and reinit the computer.
Note that the typical port used by the Parrot is &03. This interferes with the ZX Printer, and probably a bunch of other stuff. The Parrot is actually only checking that A4, A5, and A7 are zero. So, in practice, it can interfere with many peripherals.

Also, I will have to try VB81! I modified my local version of EO to include the Parrot.
John
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1024MAK
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Re: Parrot Sound Add-on

Post by 1024MAK »

stroebeljc wrote: Fri May 08, 2020 12:27 pm
XavSnap wrote: Fri May 08, 2020 7:19 am It able to update the Parrot SPO sound card on the VB81 emulator.
I had to add the &4F IORQ to the VTR/Mageco (@&3F) sound card, enclosed in the emulator.
:ugeek:

SPO on the &4F IOrq (IN & OUT) port.
Select the sound card, and reinit the computer.
Note that the typical port used by the Parrot is &03. This interferes with the ZX Printer, and probably a bunch of other stuff. The Parrot is actually only checking that A4, A5, and A7 are zero. So, in practice, it can interfere with many peripherals.

Also, I will have to try VB81! I modified my local version of EO to include the Parrot.
But 0x4F does set bits A4, A5, and A7 to zero, while keeping all the other bits at 1 to reduce the likelihood of hardware conflict.

Why anyone would use 0x03 I don’t know, that’s just asking for trouble.

Mark
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